Toshiba MES30VW Gigabeat 30 GB Portable Media Player (White)

by Toshiba

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 0.5 x 2.4 x 3.9 inches ; 5.3 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000EHCUIE
• Item model number: MES30VW
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (105 customer reviews)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Aiming to make a mark as one of the market's most powerful and sophisticated portable media players, Toshiba's Gigabeat MES30VW doesn't disappoint. The device employs Microsoft's intuitive Portable Media Center (PMC) software to play your favorite digital movies, music, and photos,

Microsoft's intuitive Portable Media Center makes it easy to play all your media. View larger. You can also see the device in detail.

with support for WMA Lossless, WMA, MP3, WAV, WMV, DivX, and JPEG formats. The Windows Media Player application even transcodes MPEG-4, AVI, and MOV formats, making it far more versatile than most video-compatible players. Meanwhile, the MES30VW's 30 GB hard drive is capable of holding a ton of digital media, including about 7,500 songs (more than 500 complete album) at 128 kbps, a robust 15,000 songs at 64 kbps, and a still-impressive 850 songs, or 57 hours, of CD-resolution WAV files.

The PC-only device is also PlaysForSure-certified by Microsoft, which means that it will operate with any similarly designated management software or download service, such as Napster, Rhapsody, and Wal-Mart Music Downloads. Users can also subscribe to movies or TV shows via MTV/Microsoft's Urge, TiVo to Go, Starz Vongo, and a host of other sites. And because the MES30VW is automatically recognized by Windows Media Player 10, you won't need to install drivers of any kind.

Controlling the device couldn't be easier. View larger.

The MES30VW's defining feature, however, is its 2.4-inch QVGA display, which offers a resolution of 320 x 240 (65,000 colors) to ensure elite video and picture quality. Viewers who want to enjoy optimal resolution can switch to landscape mode, or they can output the signal to a full-size TV for group viewing. And serious music fans can download and view album covers on the screen, search for their favorite tracks by scrolling through the album covers, or even set a favorite album as a background image.

The device is prepared for future developments as well, as it's one of the first media players that can be connected to and controlled via the Xbox 360's interface. Finally, the MES30VW serves as a USB host, letting you connect a digital camera to the unit's USB port and then transfer and view the pics immediately--no PC required.

Additional features include a built-in FM tuner with 30 station presets, a docking cradle for charging, and a pair of headphones with an integrated remote control. The MES30VW, which offers roughly 20 hours of music playback per charge, measures a compact 2.38 by 3.94 by 0.62 inches (W x H x D) and is backed by a one-year warranty on parts and labor.

What's in the Box
MES30VW portable media player, AC adapter, AC adapter cable, earbuds, USB cable, USB conversion cable, AV cable, software CD-ROM, and quick start guide.

Product Description

30GB PORTABLE MEDIA PLAYER WHITE

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love it so far, April 21, 2007

By 

V. Orcutt (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Toshiba MES30VW Gigabeat 30 GB Portable Media Player (White) (Electronics)

After being introduced to the Gigabeat by a family friend, I read a lot of customer reviews since I did want to replace my 2 Gb Apple iPod with something a little larger, and decided to go for the MES30VW, which I've had for a little over a week now.

It literally does everything, although I haven't yet tried to download videos but will soon...anyway, on to the features...

I'm not a computer techie or particularly knowledgeable on electronics, but after a couple of perusals of the manual (the FULL manual - not the Quick Start Guide!) it all made a lot of sense. I like that it uses WMP 10, which I already had on my computer anyway (though it needs to be reinstalled for files specific to the Gigabeat) and the whole thing wasn't foreign to me.

Ripping songs from my rather large collection of CDs is easy, and synching them to my Gigabeat is just as easy.

For whatever albums where the information doesn't show up immediately, I can search and there it is...album cover, song titles, artists, everything. At first I didn't know this and spent a lot of time manually typing in that information, but most of the time now I can get the information with a couple of clicks of my mouse. Even ripping CDs I've compiled myself is pretty easy, as screen will come up asking for album name (whatever you want to call it) and the songs, artists, and composers...no more "Unknown Artists" or "Unknown Albums".

Setting the FM tuner was fun, if only because I'm thrilled to have something that not only plays downloaded music, videos, and displays photos, but also gets FM radio just in case having a couple of thousand of my favorite tunes isn't quite good enough - ha ha

At first I was a bit nervous about all those moving parts (not the same as the iPod) and afraid I would disconnect it at the wrong time, but as long as the "Connected" screen is visible, it can be safely disconnected from the PC. A couple of strange things happened while trying to charge on the adaptor, but I took a chance and turned off the internal battery for a few seconds, turned it back on, and all was fine.

While we're on the topic of the battery, I have to say that I wasn't all that happy with what seemed to be a rather paltry battery life...I was only getting a couple of hours of play/transfer before getting notice that it needed to be charged again, but I did go into my Settings and adjust the backlighting from one minute to 15 seconds, turned off the Sound Effects (clicking and dinging when scrolling) turned down the screen brightness, and turned off the Harmonics. I really believe that will help conserve battery life.

Even with reduced brightness, my photos look real good, and even without Harmonics the sound is decent for a portable music player, although I really hate earbuds, but the ones that came with the device aren't too horrible. If you want symphony hall sound, spend a couple of thousand bucks on a huge home system...

I hope my description has been helpful, and if I think of anything more as time goes on I'll give an update.

One rather interesting point here is that hubby got rather envious after a few days and bought a Gigabeat just like mine and plans on also using it in his truck with an adaptor instead of juggling CDs all over the place.

We're both well over 50 years old, and it's kind of funny to see us walking around the house hooked up to our own personal music...so if two "old farts" can understand how to run the thing, it can't be all that hard.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just fantastic, November 23, 2006

By 

D. Peters (CLE. OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Toshiba MES30VW Gigabeat 30 GB Portable Media Player (White) (Electronics)

Refusing to let my son become a member of the iPod pod-heads I went looking for an alternative and found this incredible device. I'll be brief:
Software: Could not be easier to use
Sound quality: as good and better than expected - I'm not a fan of the plug-in headphones, but my son says they are excellent.
Video playback: stunning. This is the first video-mp3 machine I've toyed with and I cannot get over the vid and pic quality - even when pasted up on our TV!
Battery life: I've never heard a complaint of him running out of juice and he uses it for bus trips on a weekly basis.
Interface and controls: could not be better.
Grade: A+
Accessories: someone PLEASE get off the iPod kick and make accessories that work with other players. PLEASE.

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dont be like everyone with an Ipod. Be Better!, August 12, 2006

By 

Darrell Lucas - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Toshiba MES30VW Gigabeat 30 GB Portable Media Player (White) (Electronics)

I didn't want and Ipod cause everyone has one. I have been waitting for a Mp3/video player and when I saw this on CNET I bought it that very night.

I have the 60gb (black) and I'm writting this reveiw after owning it for about 2 weeks.

Pros.

IF it can play with windows media player it can play on this player!! Divx hint hint.
Connects perfict with windows media player and Media center Pc's.
The USB cable charges the unit so I leave this at the Pc all the time and the powercable I just leave at work.
Navigation is so simple you can hand the unit to anyone and they will figer out how to find what they want in seconds.
Small size for a unit that can hold tens of thousands of songs and pictures as well as a library of your favoret movies.
Screen resaloution is very good but not excelent.
Turning it on is practicly "instant on".
Connects with Xbox 360. Listen to your music while playing a game and navigate with x's controlers.
Album art can be displayed full screen.
Suports WMA lossless a very high quality audio codec that audiophiles love.
TV out.. Play your music and watch a slide show of your vaca on your TV. Watch movies.
Radio Turner.. extra bonus for when you want something differnt or hear a beasball game.
Unit comes with A/V cables.
Scratch resistant case.
TIVO and Media center Pc TV recordings compatable

I loaded many differnt Dvix formats AVIs on the player and they all work perfectly.


Cons.

Buttons on the right side seams to be silly placement.
Sreen color Res. and well as TV out is not at full capasity its good enough but not amazing.
No way to change screen format for widescreen movies.
Some pictures are misplaced even though they are all loaded on from the same folder.
Some files.. even though I rename them then load them on still retaine there original name.
Very limited accesories available.. Waiting for a good set of powered speakers.
No mass storage mode. (no dumping a file and transfering it to another pc)
Unit dosnt not come with a small Lanyard. (strap for your wrist)

Ok so theres a few things that are not perfict about this player.
*The most important is Video color resoultion. Its been stated that it's 65k for the units screen and for TV out. For the units screen this is perfictly fine and most people wont be able to see the color abnormalities. The TV out on the other hand you will see the graduation of color change in places like the sky and dark back grounds. People who dont know what I am talking about it when you see each color separate in the transtion from darker to lighter. Though you only see this 10 to 20 % of the time. Watching video on a larger screen will make this problem more annoying. The only thing to do about it is ignore it and pay attention to the movie.. Also an important factor is the quality of the video your watching.. If you download a movie and the party who "ripped" the movie did a crappy job well that what your going to get.. a crappy looking movie. So look for high res. movies when downloading.
I have to say when veiwing pictures through TV out isn't nearly as bad. Its Very good.
*This isn't a fully portable HD. Your not going to bring your library over to your freinds house and dump your files onto his PC. (theres other ways to share music anyhow) But anyhow putting work files and spread sheets wont happen.
*Video format. Ok so the movie I am watching is in widescreen mode. The player dosnt have the option to add black bars to the top and bottom so the video is out of perportion. Though if I play the movie on the wide screen TV this isnt a problem.

Inprovments.

*Gray background. For audio a gray back ground is drab. Custumization would be best.
*Infared port. This in conjuntion with a small remote (that and be stored in the player?!) with same face button config for easy control over the device from across the room.
*SD card slot. Mini or mico or standard SD slot would make dumping camera photos easy. And would make the unit a limited mass storge device.
*Remove buttons on the sides. This is silly. Volume should be intergreted with the cross hair control.. I cant see why anyone could see this during the design process.. while I am listening to music and watching movies pressing right or left has a perpose but pressing up or down on the cross hairs dose nothing.. instead I have to look for the volume on the side.
*Color res. Audiophiles will love the lossless codec but videophiles will literaly puke.
*Battery life. I didnt place this as a Con cause its not bad at all. But a longer life is what everyone seeks.
*Accessories. I know these wont develop without sales but I think and hope this player dose.
*Reserved space. So I can put work files and spreadsheets in a reserved folder. Files that wonts be converted to windows format. So the device can store other personal data.
*Power point/ document veiwer. Would take this unit ever farther down the road to success.
*Games. This device has a cross hair controler. Why not develop some games.


I bought this player cause I wanted to have a PVP (personal video player) to bring to a freinds house and play videos, show pictures, and play music.. also some of my own movie maker files.
This device is the answer to the wish for an easy way to share a video or movie with a freind with out having to burn a dvd (which isn't a quick process with divx files)
Everything you load on this PMP (personal Media Player) is converted to its own personal format... And thats everything.. Photos, Music and Video are all changed before being loaded on the player.. Photos are resized.. not the huge poster quality that my camera takes but downsized enough to still have great quality when vewing on a large TV screen. This is to save space on the HD.

All and all. I am Very please with the Toshiba Gigabeat S. I would recomend it to anyone who wants a video/mp3 player. I know if this thing takes off there will be upgraded units.